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R2 quenches my thirst!

Wow, what a new figure. The new R2 with serving tray is out there (as I found mine at a store), and he is nice. By far he is the best R2 to date, and not just because he comes with a serving aparatus, but because it is totally removable so you can display this figure without it.

The serving tray is the weakest point of this figure as it is very soft plastic and bends without putting pressure on it. After straightening the tray two days later the tray looked bent around the back of the droids head. The actual serving utensil is removable, and rotates. At the base of the utensil is a small pin that holds it in place, so when it is off it just leaves a very small hole that is perfectly centered at the top of R2's dome. This means that the figure can stand alone without the accessories, and not look bad at all.

The sculpt of this R2 is by far the most different than the others. I took out my R2 hologram (Commtech), the POTJ R2, the episode II R2, and the new R2 to compare with the other R2's. First of all the new R2 blows away the R2 hologram figure. It's larger, has the same features, and is squeky clean. Also the visual apparatis of the figure on the dome is much more pronounced. The POTJ version is now crap in comparrison because It's third leg, like the Episode II R2 is stuck out, and really needs more work figure wise. The body and main legs of the new R2 is practically identical to the Episode II version except that the third leg is retractible, and the bare spots on the Episode II version's chest (where plates should be filled in), are now filled in with the new fig. However the dome is the real prise of this figure. It is the most detailed and accurate R2 dome to date. It's a real prize!

great to hear about how good the Unit is, but the tray is the important part and hasbro went and screwed it up. Now to think of a way to fix it. I was holding off on making a custom one and now I see I can go ahead.

R2-D2 (Jabba's Sail Barge) - aka BAR2-D2 - has been on fan lists for quite some time. Already produced as a 12" figure and an Action Fleet mini-figure quite a while ago, this figure is a huge step up from the most recent R2 figure. But how does it stack up on its own?

Packaging: 3/5
I don't think the packaging here is that great, it's not bad but I don't love some of the elements either. In general, I only give the packaging a 3.5 these days, but here it's lower specifically because the bubble tray bent the figure's serving tray pretty badly - part of the fault there does lie with the soft materials used for the accessory though.

The film photo is the same front as back, and the cardback picture of the figure doesn't show R2 without his drink dispenser. Other than that, it's pretty much the same stuff as usual.

Sculpting: 3/5
In terms of the 3¾"-scale R2 figures, some of the sculpting here is quite good, but that's not saying much. In comparison to the real life R2-D2 props, Hasbro has had a lot of trouble capturing the right dimensions of the plucky little astromech and Bar2 is in that same boat, so much is off that it sorta holds the line back a little. Nothing on the figure is quite the right height, width, or thickness; when you compare figures in this scale to the movie prop, the 12"-scale figures, or even the Hallmark ornament (which is the same size as the 3¾" figure), it's incomprehensible; especially considering how good other 3¾" figures have been the past few years.

In comparison to other 3¾" astromech figures, R2's dome is a little weaker with the radar eye being a flat and shapeless bump and the top eye being in the wrong place as usual, the doors near the top are sculpted way too small, but some of the other details are ok. The barrel body is sharper in areas like the central vents and ports, but the doors are still the same fat indents as ever. The legs are clones of other recent astromech figure legs, which betrays a few common mistakes like the lack of ankle plates but are otherwise pretty nice and the outer legs have peg holes in the back.

Pose: 4/5
There's not much you can't do with R2, he's not the king of poses but you can do pretty much whatever you need him to do here. Since the dome rotates on a "clicky" joint that is ill-positioned, he can't look perfectly forward which sucks a little. Also, because the middle leg doesn't fully retract and pulls way too far out, it's hard to hide in 2-legged poses and annoying to make accurate 3-legged ones.

The accessories make the droid here, the drink dispenser arm and serving tray look pretty keen attached correctly, though the tray limits it to 2-legged poses.

Paint: 3/5
At first glance, this seems like an adequately-painted figure, but out of the package it's not quite as nice as it first seemed. Firstly, the figure is cast in a very clean shade of white and there's no weathering at all. Some details on the barrel and legs are painted with silver and/or blue, including the missing ankle plates, but on those ports near the sides, it's sloppy in some of the details. Some areas, especially at the sides of the legs, have the R2-blue paint applied too thin so it doesn't match other areas.

Then there's the dome, also cast in white then painted in a dull metallic silver - how do I know it's white plastic? Because the dome is scraped in a few spots exposing the white beneath, yuck! The R2-blue color is nicer here than on the white, but when you look carefully there's more stuff not fully filled in. The main radar eye is just a painted black bump, it looks unimpressive but fairly accurate, the blue panel around the eye is blue but watch for slop here, this can make or break an R2 for me and I saw several mistakes at the store. The smaller eyes have black paint at the lenses, a nice touch; the other painted panels with light blue or red or pink are quite hit-and-miss though. At least Hasbro returned the dome's lower blue line.

Articulation: 4/5
As mentioned before, the middle leg can't retract all the way and can be pulled way too far out. This is so common with recent astromechs that I probably shouldn't bother mentioning it anymore, but it still bugs me to no end. The figure has standard R2 posability, rotating dome, and standard hips and ankles. No, he doesn't raise up and down at the ankles, doesn't have ball-jointed eyes, not moving arms from his various doors, but Hasbro isn't quite ready for those things anyway I think. So why the lower score? Again as mentioned before, the dome rotates "clicky" and it doesn't allow him to look perfectly forward. Petty? Maybe, but it bothers me.

One big thing this figure has going for it in this department is the fact that it's an R2-D2 figure that has all of the modern 3-legged articulation, other astromechs have accomplished this, but this is the first and only R2-D2 that's not the Holo-Leia figure to have all 3 legs fully articulated.

Accessories: 3.5/5
R2 isn't the king of accessories usually either, but here he comes with 3 - a removable drink dispenser arm, a removable serving tray, and a standard SW figure stand. The stand is still really basic and makes no sense here, but hey, free stand; oh, and it's darker than the one with R-3PO. The drink dispenser in the film was a thin, complex arm that came out of the central door at the top of R2's dome; here, Hasbro has made it a removable gray piece that attaches to a small hole at that central door, and the arm has an open version of the door sculpted on the arm and painted to match. Since it pegs into a hole, it hides the actual door and can rotate around on its own.

The serving tray has a great sculpt and a nice gold color, but was shot in plastic too flexible for its needs. The detailing is ornate and nearly everywhere, the main parts between the tray and the curved arms is actually cut out to match the detail, a step Hasbro could easily have gotten away with skimping on but gratefully didn't. The cups are molded with the tray, so their neither removable nor clear, but this alone seems easily forgivable. Unfortunately, the plastic is just flimsy enough that it doesn't fit accurately on the figure and the warping can vary greatly from figure to figure, so choose wisely. Finally, I'm annoyed that the bubble tray is so tight and the material so weak that the back of the tray is bent down a little to the curve of the dome instead of being a flat surface.

Overall Grade:B
This is a good figure, but not a great one. No door to hold Luke's saber, no Luke's saber hilt at all, weak dome sculpt, and especially that too-flexible drink tray all keep this from being a really noteworthy figure in my book. It's a step up from most other R2-D2s, if not other astromechs (and the dome is actually a small step down) - so if you've been hoping for this specific Malibu Stacy with new hat, you can't go too wrong here.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Well, I saw this in passing and while it seemed decent at a glance, I did not really inspect this; I will agree that we need an ultimate R2 - one that does not sacrifice the sculpt for playability. To date, my fav is still the Holo Leia R2 - love the holographic (read: shiny) decals. After JT's comments, I am really curious to see this up close and personal.

Found it today (at Target), and JT's right on the mark. It's really good, but not great. I never found and still don't have a "holo-Leia" R2, so I can't compare. It looks like the same body and legs as R3-T7 or R3-A2. The head's a bit squat, but with the tray on it looks OK.

In all, I'm happy with it. I really wish that the tray had been way less flimsy, not just one solid peice of gold plastic either. Hard plastic with clear glasses would have been great, but instead we've got "good", so I suppose that'll have to be good enough. (A hatch for a saber hilt would have been great also, but oh-well.)